Samuel J. Kirkwood was born in 1813 in Harford County, Maryland. At age 17, he began teaching school and had as one of his pupils his cousin Daniel Kirkwood, who later achieved prominence as a mathematician and astronomer.[1] Samuel spent part of his youth in Washington, D.C.,[2] then joined his father in moving to Ohio in 1835.[3] There he became a well-known anti-slavery Republican. He was elected to several state offices and worked closely with Thomas Bartley, the future governor of Ohio, in the 1840s.

Jane and Samuel Kirkwood, 1852.

In 1855 Kirkwood moved to Iowa, living northwest of Iowa City, and became involved with the Clark family, also from Ohio, in a milling venture, and then with the Clark and Lucas families in land speculation. Kirkwood married Jane Clark, the sister of Ezekiel Clark, and thus became the brother-in-law of Edward Lucas, son of Iowa's first Territorial Governor Robert Lucas.

Although Kirkwood intended to leave politics behind him in Ohio, he took an interest in the newly founded Republican Party. Summoned from his mill at Coralville and still coated in flour dust, Kirkwood gave a rousing speech at the founding meeting of the Iowa Republican Party in February 1856. Many people credited Kirkwood’s speech and subsequent work with the success of the Republican Party in Iowa; that year he was elected to the Iowa Senate serving from 1856 to 1859.

In 1859 Kirkwood was nominated for governor and defeated Augustus C. Dodge after a bitter campaign which focused on the slave issue. In 1860, Kirkwood’s first year in office, the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry further polarized the nation over slavery, and Kirkwood was clearly on the side of the militant abolitionists. When Barclay Coppock, a youth from Springdale, who was part of Brown’s raid, fled to Iowa, Kirkwood refused to accept extradition papers for him from Virginia, and allowed Coppock to escape.

After he left office in 1864, Kirkwood moved to a new house on Wyoming Road in Iowa City (now Kirkwood Avenue) and practiced law. About this time Kirkwood sold his share of the mill, part of it to his brother, William, and part to Valentine Miller. In 1865-1867, he served the remainder of James Harlan’s term in the U.S. Senate, and served in the Senate again from 1877 to 1881.[5] Between his separate terms as a Senator, he was again the Governor of Iowa from 1876 to 1877. He resigned as governor in 1877 to begin his second term as U.S. Senator. In 1881, Kirkwood resigned his Senate seat to become Secretary of the Interior under PresidentJames Garfield. He served as Interior Secretary until 1882. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1886.

Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids is named for the former Iowa Governor and Senator. The town of Kirkwood, Illinois is named for him as well. Along with Nobel Peace Prize winner and agronomist Norman Borlaug, Kirkwood's sculptured likeness is maintained among the two coveted statues apportioned to each state on display under the rotunda in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Kirkwood Avenue in Iowa City, where he lived for much of his political career, is named for him. The Kirkwood House in Iowa City is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[6] The Hotel Kirkwood in Des Moines, which is named in his honor, is also listed on the National Register.[7] Kirkwood Elementary School in Coralville is located where Kirkwood ran his mill. A small, neglected monument once stood near the Morningside entrance to Iowa City High School, but this was removed in 2010. Kirkwood Boulevard in Davenport is on the route of the internationally known foot race, the Bix 7.